this post was submitted on 29 Nov 2025
69 points (94.8% liked)

United States | News & Politics

4086 readers
293 users here now

Welcome to !usa@midwest.social, where you can share and converse about the different things happening all over/about the United States.

If you’re interested in participating, please subscribe.

Rules

Be respectful and civil. No racism/bigotry/hateful speech.

No pics of text

Memes are now allowed, as long as they're US centric, general political memes please see !politicalmemes@lemmy.ca

Post news related to the United States.

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 months ago

Because the 13th amendment has an explicit exception for prison slave labor baked into it. It's not an accidental addition, and it wasn't unnoticed either (it was very quickly used especially in the South after the 13th amendment was ratified)

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Some states have recently change their state constitutions to prohibit that within the state, but it's still legal federally and in the vast majority of states